These Are the Cosplay Ideas for 2017!

With the closing of an arguably disastrous 2016, cosplayers are gearing up for a new year of convention circuits and getting psyched up by an impressively long list of geek culture-centric movies and video games.

And yet it starting to look like there's going to be a heck of a lot of nostalgia running around dealer's rooms across the globe.

Sombra - Overwatch

New year, new you... so far Overwatch hasn't lost any of its hype over the past 2.5 competitive seasons, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon. With new events popping out every few months (the latest of which includes a new game mode, and Chinese New Year themed skins, sprays, and emotes), it looks like there's plenty of food for inspirational fodder in this Blizzard behemoth for a long time to come.

Sombra - Overwatch

The game has garnered more than its fair share of internet outrage over the past few months - from Symmetra's "white girl" vampire skin during Halloween, to Mei's botched waistline in her most recent CNY skins. Further cosplay efforts like above Pion Kim's fantastic Sombra came under fire for "brownface", i.e. her use of bronzer to darker her skin tone so that she could more closely match the character's.

D.Va and Mei are both just as likely to pop up at your local convention, particularly the former as her bodysuit and props are fairly inexpensive and easy to come by, but with a few more well-needed updates to the Sombra character kit due to hit the PTR, this purple-haired hacker is sure to pop up more and more.

(Sombra - Boop! Hacking Complete! (Overwatch Cosplay) 오버워치 - 솜브라)

Cloud Strife - Final Fantasy VII Remake

This is a game that video game audience has asked for time and again. Square Enix has toyed with our emotions with each and every console that they've pushed out onto the market, and at last we're finally coming into our own.

The principle characters of Final Fantasy have always been a mainstay at conventions, although in latter years most Cloud cosplayers continue to gravitate toward all the bells and whistles in his Advent Children outfit. Now we're bound for a return to form.

Cloud Strife - Final Fantasy VII Remake

Cloud's outfit is quite probably the only one that has undergone such a drastic change from his original (okay, and Tifa's too) and as a huge fan myself, it's nice to see cosplayers already stepping back into the hack-and-slashed SOLDIER uniform that made so much more canonical sense than the new.

2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, and fans can simultaneously celebrate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII specifically. You can bet this year is seriously coming up Squeenix.

(image source: Will Wong)

Aqua - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Speaking of Square Enix, this collaboration with Disney is still going strong as fans cling to the coming of Kingdom Hearts III.

With the recent release of KH 2.8, die hard fans have new playable content to stem the tide for a little while, whereas new fans now have an easier opportunity to play through a number of the games (which have hopped across nearly every Sony console and handheld to date) without swapping platforms.

Aqua - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Poor Aqua may have been left in limbo for a lot longer than we'd have liked, but that hasn't stopped cosplayers from stepping into her shoes, and her badass costume to boot.

Since KH3 is peeking over the horizon and promises to be the biggest installment in the franchise ever with our first look at a grown-up Sora, it's not surprising that cosplayers are psyching themselves up for something truly epic and worth realizing in real life!

Nebula - Guardians of the Galaxy

Okay, so maybe the blue paint and skull cap won't be for everyone, but this ass-kicking alien chick is definitely in the cards for upcoming 2017.

Sure there's the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie that's fast approaching theaters (with a baby Groot that's destined to melt your heart), but reports are popping up that Eidos Montreal (the developer behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution) is working on a Guardians of the Galaxy video game though it's as yet early in production.

It'll be one of several comic book partnership video games between Marvel and Square Enix (the first of which is set to feature the Avengers).

Gladiolus - Final Fantasy XV

All right, so there might be some wishful thinking involved including this one into the list... but not much! FFXV is big and everyone's playing it (okay, maybe I'm not, but that's more because I'm lazy and waiting for a PC release).

It's taken a long time in coming, and has changed a hell of a lot along the way. Admit it, we're just happy it's here - never mind that it looks fantastic, and Square Enix have seriously ponied up to make sure that it all finally came to completion.

Gladiolus - Final Fantasy XV

Some may speculate that it's the abs that make or break a Gladiolus cosplay - and let's face it, Italian cosplayer Leon Chiro sure fits the bill. Definitely daunting, but not impossible for most, especially when you throw a little costume makeup into the mix.

Besides, it's that sword that really makes an impression, isn't it? If you can manage that, it doesn't matter the build - you've got a pretty good thing going.

Spider-Man

So Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man may have been the snarky Spider-Man of my cartoon-bingeing teenage years, but his days in the tight suit appear to be behind him. With Spider-Man: Homecoming coming out in theaters soon and Tom Holland already having taken a spin in the role with an appearance in Captain America: Civil War, Spidey is poised to give Deadpool a run for his money in 2017.

Spider-Man

This is probably made easier because Spider-Man is pretty much a given when it comes to the big comic conventions, and certainly doesn't mind popping up at video game-centric ones either... and why should he? After nearly 40 years of Spider-Man video games, he definitely deserves the place!

Besides, what better way for webslingers to unite than in a conga line snaking around the building?

William - Nioh

A new challenger appears??

This definitely isn't a jump on the nostalgia train, but the playable demos out for upcoming PS4 game Nioh have gotten video game audiences pretty psyched for the full release (which is only days away!).

Set in an alternate fantasy Japan's bloody Sengoku period and the chaos of warring states you play as William, a master-less samurai, who faces off against evil demons and humans alike. If this game proves as good as it promises to be, you can bet we're going to see this guy in upcoming photo shoots very, very soon.

That's it!

(Well kind of... you know Link will definitely be making an appearance at conventions around the globe, with the signature green tunic that we've all come to associate with him or with this latest blue iteration of him in upcoming Breath of the Wild that's set to release in March.)

Have we missed anyone too criminally big to forget? Think these are entirely off the mark? Feel free to let us know!